Sheet Music: Score

Drowning songs : for chamber choir / Caitlin Rowley.

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Score Sample

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Drowning Songs is an evocation of the
experience of drowning and a remembrance of those who have
drowned. The text consists of a fragment of the psalm 'De
Profundis', the names of the some of the seamen listed as drowned
in circumstances other than shipwreck in the British Merchant
Navy records for the period between July 1881 and June 1882, and
additional text devised by the composer.

The opening of the piece draws on a description
of bodies sinking down through deep water, "falling like dolls",
given in the book All the Drowned Sailors by Raymond B.
Lech. Depth and the action of the waves are recurring ideas
throughout the piece, with the recurrence of the opening gesture
and the susurration of whispered and spoken names of sailors
rising and falling.

Composed for a performance of maritime-themed
works to be held under the keel of the Cutty Sark ship
at Greenwich, London in 2014.